Ban the Sale and Possession of Shark fins in New York

For many decades the state of New York has prided itself of containing the capital of the world New York City, and it's not a surprise that it contains a vast amount of Chinese resturants and a Chinatown. However, what's also not surprising is that most Chinese resturants in and outside Chinatown serve a dish that's destroying our oceans, shark fin soup.

Data has revealed that today there are 90% less sharks than there were in 1970 due to this industry, and over 70 million sharks are killed every year just for this soup. It's also amazing about the kind of shark's fins that can be so easily used for this soup, such as the fins of a great white shark, or even a scalloped hammerhead. Aside from the fact that using only the fins wastes over 95% of the shark, many people who have had the soup, says the fin tastes of literally nothing while the fins themselves contain little to no nutritional value, high levels of mercury, and in more recent studies a dangerous neurotoxin linked with Alzheimer's, ALS, and Parkinson's disease. However, the way the sharks are killed is what gets most people to stop eating this dish. When harvesting shark fins, the animal has its fins cut off while it's still alive only to have its body thrown back into the water where it dies a slow and painful death. It's by far one of the worst forms of animal cruelty in existence. In fact this dish is so cruel and has contributed to depleting the shark population so much it's been banned in states with surprisingly high Asian American populations. The dish has been banned in California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. While regions and cities in Canada such as Toronto have also banned the dish, and the EU is planning to enforce a ban on finning. While over in Asia, Hong Kong's famous Peninsula Hotel, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Disneyland, and the Shanghai hotels in China have stopped serving and have banned this dish from their locations all together, and more recently the Chinese government is planning to ban the dish at official state banquets. More information even reveals that Chinese youth be it mainland born or heritage no longer consider the dish to be a part of their culture. Even more data reveals that New York might become the first Eastern State to ban the shark fin trade yet I want to see that become a reality sooner. Because the sooner the trade is banned and the sooner this dish is no longer eaten the sooner we can save all shark species and prevent a third of all shark species from becoming extinct. And everyone here please take the pledge to help out, if a Chinese resturant, or Chinese wedding serves shark fin soup don't go there, tell your friends family, and even some strangers to do the same.